As a founder member of Mystery Women in 1997, promoting Crime Fiction has always been my passion.
Following the closure of Mystery Women, a new group was formed on 30th January 2012 promoting crime fiction.
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Thursday, 17 December 2015

‘Under the Coconut Tree’ by Marissa de Luna

Published
by Lost Button Publishing, 20 July 2015. ISBN: 978-1-512252163.

A very different setting is
envisaged here!We are in Goa with
Detective Arthur Chupplejeep as he attempts to apply Poirot's methods to
solving a murder.The victim is Sandeep
Shah found naked in the garden of the house where he has lodgings.He has a gash on his head which is obviously
the cause of death.

Local
details really establish the very different society that we see here.This is a village in which relationships have
reference to one's job and to one's antecedents.Behaviour has to be correct and food plays an
enormous part in life.Chupplejeep and
his assistant,Police Officer Pankaj,
find that the victim is a womaniser and this, they feel, has caused his death
so they question the women in his life.They also consider the effects of Shah's actions on the men affected by
Shah's attractiveness to women.

Personal
problems, concern the two officers.While Pankaj is a neophyte hoping to learn from a clever superior,
Chupplejeep has professional and personal issues with which to grapple.He has a girlfriend hoping for marriage and to
whom he is reluctant to commit; his position as an honest cop means that he
fears he will not achieve advancement in a fairly corrupt system.

The
final showdown with witnesses gathered (but not quite in the Poirot style!)
leads to a satisfactory solution.

------

Reviewer: Jennifer S. Palmer

This
is the first of a planned series of Chupplejeep Mysteries.

Marissa de Lunais an up-and-coming young author with a
passion for writing, travel and adventure. Marissa grew up in Goa before she
moved to Oxford but her time spent in Goa has always been an inspiration to
her. On a recent trip there, in awe of the tranquility and charm of the rural
villages, she conceived the idea of Detective Chupplejeep. Under the Coconut
Tree is her third novel. It is the first book in the lighthearted
Detective Chupplejeep series

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime
fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an
expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands
& the USA
but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting
reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics
including Famous Historical Mysteries.

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About Me

From an early age I have been a lover of crime fiction. Discovering like minded people at my first crime conference at St Hilda’s Oxford in 1997, I was delighted when asked to join a new group for the promotion of female crime writers. In 1998 I took over the running of the group, which I did for the next thirteen years.
During that time I organised countless events promoting crime writers and in particular new writers. But apart from the sheer joy of reading, ‘I actually love books, not just the writing, the plot or the characters, but the sheer joy of holding a book has never abated for me. The greatest gift of my life has been the ability to read'.